A Pastoralist's Story - Annabelle Copin, Yarrie Station

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Anabelle Copin - Yarrie Station

With last year being so very dry and we
chose the option of feeding CalfGro® pellets as a “dry season” management
strategy. Feeding the pellets was expensive and hurt the financials in a year when
income from sales was down. I did the sums of feeding the pellets based on
whether a calf was going to survive or not, or whether a cow was going to
survive and get back in calf again. Having done this early on and seeing that
the rain did not come, I was certainly able to justify using the pellets. I
knew how many cows and weaners I had to save to cover the cost of the pellets
and this justified me spending the money.

I spent the money on the CalfGro®
pellets and weaned very early, down to 50 kgs. They went onto the pellet well,
but animal management still played an important role. We had to keep the
animals in their weight lines so that all animals could get access to the
pellets and hay. Without careful animal management, right from the start, meaning
as soon as we pulled them off the cows in the bush yard they were separated
from the larger weaners, put straight on clean water, hay and then pellets and
we also put them through a weaner handling program. I don’t think that I would
of got the response that we did, if not for the bit of extra care.

I keep a good track of my cows on a
computer record system and so far through the muster I am able to tell now that
most of last year’s wet cows did get pregnant during the bad dry and they are
about to calve in the next few months. A lot of these cows got in calf during
October and November which was the worst bit of the year. Weaning hard, putting
the calves on CalfGro pellets and trying to hold cow condition looks as though
it will give me more calves this season and justifies the money that I spent.

While I did my sums on wanting to keep
calves and cows alive so that I would have income when the rain did come,
another very important factor for me in deciding to feed the pellets was the
commitment to animal welfare. I wanted to look after the cows and their
condition and to get them through a horrible time. Back last year I did not
know that it was going to rain this January and I knew that I had to take care
of these cows and the weaners to get them through this dry time. Like most
pastoralists, I care for my animals and I was not going to let them die.

We trucked all of these weaners to the
farm at Badgingarra where we continued to give them access to the pellets while
they grazed on pastures. Good animal management was again important in getting
these small weaners adjusted and going ahead. Small weaners that may not have
survived at Yarrie had we not fed pellets, are now 250-300 kgs animals that we
are backgrounding to sell into a range of markets once they are heavier. We
have recently been feeding them on EasyBeef® in the feedlot for anywhere from
40-70 days, which again is expensive, but I worked out that we needed to get
more than 1.5 kgs/Day average daily gain. They have been doing better than
this, mainly around 1.6-1.7 and it has allowed us to sell cattle with condition
rather than having to dump cattle onto the store market. It gives flexibility when selling and I can still set
the price that I want to sell at. Adding
more value to my cattle is the path we are focussing on. Nothing is a
golden egg, however having access to the option of pellets gives us more
flexibility in our business.

I
want to stress that making the decision to feed pellets and fork extra dollars
when the business is under pressure in
a dry time was not an easy decision, but
I looked long term at my herd management and my desire to look after my
animals. I certainly don’t regret that I paid the money, fed the pellets as
part of the dry season management plan and now have cows that are calving with
weaners to sell later on. Having a plan to look after my animals during the
tough dry season also helped me phytologically to get through that tough
period.